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Original poster

The things our Mums did when we were babies.........

277 replies

Northerner · 21/05/2004 11:51

Following on from Coddys boiled egg comment!

According to my Mum I had sugered water as a new born, had a crushed rusk in my bottle from 4 weeks, was put to sleep on my tummy and was potty trained by 12 months and walking at 9 months.

Your turn!

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carlyb · 21/05/2004 19:25

sunlounger - you deserve a medal! Did you wear marigolds?

Sunlounger · 21/05/2004 19:28

No but it was ok. It's odd she just said 'oh get a bit of vaseline and massage the little anus, sometimes the sensation makes them want to go!! I did try stewed plums but no they did not help either. Orange juice is good.

hmb · 21/05/2004 19:29

My mother used to put cough medicine in a dormer bottle and give it to me to knock me out!

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hmb · 21/05/2004 19:36

OJ is not helpful in severe constipation! I wanted to pull my hair out when people used to suggest this when dd was chronicaly constipated. She ate masses of fruit and veg and dried fruit and nothing would shift her, in all honesty she would have been turing orange if she had eaten any for oranges Severe constipation can be a major problem and needs to be taken seriously. Dd's was down to psychological reasons and lasted for over 18 months. She would hold in her poo for up to 5 days at a time and would spend hours crying. It was awful and was only cured in the end with long term laxitive use when she was potty trained at 3.5.

Not wishing to be argumentative but when you cope with this sort of thing the last thing you need is someone telling you (with the best of intentions), 'Oh just give her some OJ'.

eddm · 21/05/2004 19:43

My MIL's doc told her to give my dh a bone to chew on as it would be good for his teeth! He was eating steak by four months old... and my mum hung me from the washing line to see if very tiny babies really did have prehensile grip like the great apes, for hanging on to their mothers (ie tiny babies can support their own weight hanging). Luckily she was right...

hmb · 21/05/2004 19:44

eddm

One tough babe!

carlyb · 21/05/2004 19:44

hmb - only suggested oj because it worked for my ds. sorry you had such a rough time with it and glad it worked out in the end.

Hulababy · 21/05/2004 19:49

I was left outside a lot too BU apparantly not if foggy - apparantly that's the only weather babies were not supposed to be - not sure why???

My mum is pretty good about the potty training thing. I was at about 25/26 months and my brother around 3 - not sure on night time. According to MIL though DH and BIL were both trained well before they were 2 (before 18 months I think she said) day and night.

Sunlounger · 21/05/2004 19:52

God yes...sorry mentioned OJ!! Sore point!!

expatkat · 21/05/2004 20:19

I got formula and pots of food. Period.

Oh--and my parents were too lazy to heat up my bottle in the mornings, so they sped up the process by adding coffee to my milk. Lots of sugar too.

And when I was 9 and having a fast & irregular heartbeat due to a medication I was on, my dad gave me some valium. (He's a doctor, so it's not as bad as it sounds. . .or is it?)

And when I got sore throats, he would say "pshaw!" to my going to the doctor. He'd check my throat himself to ascertain if it looked as though I had strept or not. If he believed I did, he got his antibiotic capsules outthe ones dosed for adultsunscrewed them and guestimated how much powder to pour down the sink, so it would be closer to a child's dosage. He then made me swallow the capsules whole with water. I learned how to do that from about age 6.

And boiled eggs sounded bad. . .

emmatmg · 21/05/2004 20:37

OH MY GOD.......eddm!

I'm so glad your mum was right.

eddm · 21/05/2004 20:45

Feeling guilty about sharing the washing line thing now, should explain, my mother had just done a zoology degree ? I was ahem a little surprise.
Mind you, she also let me hang on to her very long hair as she walked around (same principle). And eat worms from the garden ? must have been about six to ten months old as she said I was sitting but not crawling.
She really does believe in toughening them up!

eddm · 21/05/2004 20:46

And she promises me she was standing under the washing line ready to catch!

Coddylicious · 21/05/2004 20:47

are you tough and adventurous eddm?

eddm · 21/05/2004 20:47

Maybe the worms thing explains why I'm now a vegetarian...

eddm · 21/05/2004 20:48

Noooo complete coward when it comes to physical stuff (although I really like flying light aircraft, does that count?).

hmb · 21/05/2004 20:49

Lots of protein in worms! And I bet you have an immune system second to none!

My mothers stock comment if we were ever ill in any way was 'Oh don't worry about it, it is far enough away from your arse!' Unlike me ddd I was never contipated!

Metrobaby · 21/05/2004 20:52

My mum and MIL both were told drinking Guiness in pregnancy was good for them and the baby. My mum weaned me onto solids by the time I was 4 weeks too.

MIL used to tie DH with washing line to the post in the garden to stop him from wandering off (he was walking at 10 months). She also gave carnation evap milk to DH's brother as he wouldn't take formula.

eddm · 21/05/2004 20:55

Metrobaby, every time I saw my mum when I was p/g she tried to force Guinness down my neck 'because you vegetarians don't get enough iron'. Yeah, right, I'm only a medical journalist who happens to know just a little about nutrition and was very carefully making sure I combined vegetarian sources with vitamin C to maximise iron content...

Piffleoffagus · 21/05/2004 21:05

Sorry I am bigging up Guinness, without its help diluting my man choosing sense one lonely Saturday night back in 1993, my ds would be a twinkle unborn in my eye...
Drunk a bottle a day while b/f too, do not know whether it helped me but bejesus it sure helped me!
And after b/f stopped I resumed my lifes ambition to become an alcoholic...

Metrobaby · 21/05/2004 21:06

I could do with tieing DH with washing line myself

NomDePlume · 21/05/2004 21:11

My Mum was stopped by the police for being drunk in charge of a minor whilst walking home from a 'summer bbq' with me in my massive pram at around 4 months old!

Lisa78 · 21/05/2004 21:12

Did she get into trouble?

Slinky · 21/05/2004 21:29

I'm another one who was brought up on Carnation Milk

Seen piccies of my mum holding me over a potty around the age of 5/6 months - apparently I was "toilet-trained" then!!

She regularly "lost" me in supermarkets - most weeks there would be an announcement "would the parent of a little girl wearing......, etc" over the tannoy - apparently I was a little b*er for wandering off !

Slept on my tummy from day 1.

My 2 aunts have told me that when I was ill/feverish, my mum would insist on wrapping me up so that I would "sweat it out". She did this from babyhood until the day I had a febrile convulsion! She panicked so much when she realised I was fitting that she dropped the iron onto my leg (burning me in the process ).

Still, when she looks after my kids and they're ill, she's practically stripped them to their pants - even if they're not feverish

My mum and dad were "weekend party animals" who didn't think children should get in the way, so most Saturday nights, we were dragged to various parties, plied with loads of pop/crisps, then when we were tired, we used to lay down across the chairs and my dad used to cover us with blankets

NomDePlume · 21/05/2004 21:32

She got a caution, Lisa !